The Ghana Education Service (GES) has urged parents of children living with sickle cell disease and other chronic conditions to disclose their wards’ health status to schools to ensure they receive the necessary support. Speaking at the 3rd Annual International Sickle Cell Centre Conference on Friday, June 19, the National Coordinator of the School Health Education Programme, Theresah Oppong-Mensah, explained that disclosure enables teachers and school staff to provide appropriate care, accommodation, and acceptance for affected learners.
She further noted that GES, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, is training teachers to better support students with chronic health conditions. “If your child is in school, from KG up to SHS, it is better that you let the teacher know about the child’s condition for that teacher to be able to provide the needed support. If your child is on any medication, let the teacher know,” she advised.
“So if you explain everything to the teacher, they will know how to handle that child. In SHS, it is not only the teacher who is supposed to be in the room because your child will be in class with other colleagues. And so the class needs to be sensitised on that condition so that they will accept the child and provide the needed support to that child.”
Source: Nii Okai Sekyere
